A. Field of the Invention
The invention generally concerns the determination of alkalinity of a solution. In particular, the kits and methods of the present invention are used to determine the alkalinity of an analyte composition by adding the analyte composition a lyophilized titrant composition in each microwell of the plurality of microwells to form a solution in each microwell having a different pH.
B. Description of Related Art
Alkalinity is the buffering capacity of a solution. Alkalinity is a measure of the ability of water to neutralize acid and bases thereby maintaining a fairly stable pH. Aqueous solutions that include compounds such as bicarbonates, carbonates, and hydroxides which combine with hydronium (H+) ions from the water thereby raising the pH (more basic) of the water. To maintain a fairly constant pH in a water body, a higher alkalinity measurement is desirable. Water bodies with high alkalinity can have the ability to neutralize acidic inputs into the water body. For example, rocks, soil, salts, some plant activities, and industrial wastewater discharge can provide sufficient concentrations of compounds to a water body that increase the alkalinity of the water body. Conventional methods for determining alkalinity include titrating solutions of interest to a pH where all of the titratable base is consumed. The end point of the titration is determined by adding a colorimetric pH indicator, (for example, bromocresol green), and using naked-eye detection of a change in color to determine the endpoint. This technique suffers from many disadvantages. First, the visual technique requires the analyst to manually titrate a solution of acid, drop wise, into the analyte solution of interest. Secondly, the visual technique requires the subjective determination of a color change. These two disadvantages often result in errors resulting from the analyst overshooting the endpoint due to adding too much strong acid or misjudging the color change at the endpoint. Thus, the analyst has to in many cases redo the titration method. Also, manual titration is time-consuming.